Sports and Pastimes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 28, 12 November 1897, Page 31

Sports and Pastimes.

DR. BARRY, OF CORK : THE CHAMPION AMATEUR HAMMER- ' -• „ ' ' THROWER. The Victorian amateurs (says the Sydney Freeman, of October 30) hud a " carnival " at the St. Kilda Cricket Ground on Saturday last. The promoting bodies — the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association and the Victorian Amateur Cyclists' Union — had drawn up a splendid programme, and the couple of thousand people who turned out were treated to an exhibition of athletic excellence gratifying in the extreme. ' ~ The programme divided itself into two parts, one of general athletics, and the other of cycling. In the first all the best of the local champions took part, but they were overshadowed by the appearance of Dr. W. J. M. Barry, of the London Athletic Club, the world's champion at hammer-throwing. The doctor is a graduate of Queen's College, Cork, and is at present touring the world. He stands 6ft 4in in height, weighs 17st, and is magnificently proportioned. In hammer and shot throwing he has few rivals, and only one, and that a countryman. John Flanagan, of Tipperary, who can extend him. The doctor divided the shot championship of England in 1889 withß. A. G-reen, putting the shot 39ft Sin. In 1891 he won with 40ft Bin, and in 1892 with 42ft 10|in. He won the hammer championship in 1885 with 108 ft 10in, in 1889 with 130 ft, in 1892 with 133 ft 3in, in 1894 with 126 ft B£in, and ia 1895 with i:J2ft ll£in. In 1892 he put up the world's record with 137 ft, and again recently, When winning the Northern Counties Championship, he made new world's figures with 138 ft 10£ in. On Saturday he had no difficulty in winning the hammer championship, with 119 ft 9in, T. R. West (unattached) was next with 86ft, and D. J. D. Bevan (M.H. and H.) third with 85ft 6in. Dr. Barry's figurea constitute a Victorian record, the previous best being 93ft Bin, by W. J. Doolan, at Melbourne, in November 1896. In the putting-the-weight championship Dr. Barry was also victorious, though he did not beat the Victorian record. He put up 36ft 4£in, against D. J. D. Bevan's 33ft 94in. T. O'Connor holds the Victorian record with 38ft 4 ?m. Dr. Barry did not make any serious attempt to beit the record in this competition, preferring to wait till he had been longer off shipboard. John Flanagan, champion hammer-thrower of the world, throws the 161 b hammer in the latest and most approved style. This partly accounts for the ease with which he broke James Sarsfield Mitchell's long-standing record of 145 ft. £in. at the games of the N.I.A.C. in New York last Memorial Day. In throwiug the hammer, Flanagan first places the head of the implement behind him on the ground, it is started swinging with a swift rotary movement around his head — up, down, around, with almost inconceivable velocity twice. Flanagan himself is turning now. He wheels on his toes, keeping ahead of the hammer, pulling it after him for two entire revolutions. Then he suddenly gives a heave, and the missile is flying far out over the field, nut high, but with great spued. Flanagan finishes high on his toes, with his b >ck towar.ls the throw. He balances for a moment aud then gradually recovers, and walks out at the back of the ring. This style of turning twice in the aeven-foot ring has been introduced only two years ago. Its advantage lies in the added momentum acquired before the implement is released. Flanagan has always been a first-cla>s athlete, but has been in record-breaking only two years. The otb/jr big hammer throwers of the world, Mitchell, Kiely, and Barry, aro Irishmen.